1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telecom (telecommunicated) karaoke (recorded song accompaniment) for performing music at a terminal in accordance with musical data delivered via a communication line from a host base station, and more particularly to a telecom karaoke system in which the performance of music and World Wide Web (WWW), a hypermedia database on Internet, are linked together.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telecom karaoke systems for picking out, via a communication line, musical data accumulated at a host base station and performing music at terminals are commonly known. An example of such telecom karaoke system is X-55, a production of Taito Co., Ltd.
Usually in karaoke performance, the text of the song and pictorial images to dramatize its atmosphere are shown in synchronism with the performance of the accompanying music. For instance the Gazette of the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 146976/1996 (hereinafter called Reference 1) discloses a telecom karaoke system in which diverse pictorial data are stored in advance on laser disks at its terminals, and each terminal can show the visual data in synchronism with the performance of the music by receiving from the host station the musical data and the address signals of pictures to be displayed in synchronism with the musical data.
Or in the Gazette of the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 129395/1996 (Reference 2), for example, there is disclosed a telecom karaoke system in which picture signals are sent to its terminals from the host station and stored at the terminals so that the pictures can be displayed in synchronism with the subsequently transmitted music.
Further in the Gazette of the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 87286/1996 (Reference 3), a method is disclosed by which not only musical data but also news and other data are received from the host station and played back.
By way of another example, the Gazette of the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 160971/1996 (Reference 4) discloses a system in which the host station superposes the address of the text which is to be displayed at the time of playback on the MIDI standard musical data of the music, and delivers the address-superposed data; each terminal displays the text, which is stored in advance, in synchronism with the playback of the music in accordance with the data received from the host station.
Furthermore in the Gazette of the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 226017/1995, for example, there is disclosed a performance recording/reproducing apparatus which can superpose MIDI signals and closed caption signals on the signals of scanning lines during the vertical line-erased period of video signals, and play them back in synchronism.
The methods so far described are those used to display the text and pictorial images in synchronism with the performance of the music in telecom karaoke, or to use the terminals not only for the performance of karaoke music but also for data communication.
Next, telecom karaoke also allows its users to store data including the musical numbers chosen by them for subsequent use.
For example, the Gazette of the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 44379/1996 (Reference 6) a karaoke apparatus which logs the performance history of musical numbers by karaoke, takes out the data from the host base station as required, and thereby keeps track of the frequency of the performances of each number. The data of this performance history can be utilized in calculating advertising fees or the like. It also allows the host station to chart the popularity ranking of karaoke musical numbers, for instance.
Further the Gazette of the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 210182/1995 (Reference 7), for example, discloses a karaoke system which uses the marking system at each terminal to evaluate the performance of each singer and transmits the results of evaluation to the host base station so that the marks can be compared among the individual karaoke apparatuses of the system.
However, the above-described systems or methods of the prior art involve the following problems.
A telecom karaoke system which, as disclosed in Reference 1 or 4, displays pictures and other additional information in synchronism with the performance of music can display only a limited quantity of pictures stored at the terminal, and displaying new information, not stored at the terminal, would require an advance transfer of pictorial data from the host station to the karaoke terminal, as described in Reference 2, or a transfer of pictorial data and musical data superposed on each other, as stated in Reference 5. The quantity of pictorial data is generally extremely large, and its transfer involves the problem of time and cost.
Furthermore, it is described in Reference 3 that news and other non-musical data are also stored at the host station and can be taken out and displayed at the terminals of the telecom karaoke system, but such data have nothing to do with the music of karaoke, and accordingly there is no advantage in linking the display of news and the like to the performance of music.
Another background circumstance, apart from the telecom karaoke systems described so far, is the presence of WWW, a hypermedia database on Internet. WWW can be accessed by using, for example, a WWW browser operating on a personal navigator. Available WWW browsers include Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. In the following description, personal computers, television sets and so forth mounted with a WWW browser will be generically referred to as WWW access terminals. WWW is connected worldwide through Internet, and a large number of hypermedia documents (WWW documents) have been prepared by organizations and individuals, with their number continuing to increase steadily.
One of the notable features of WWW is that, merely by designating an address called a uniform resource locator (URL), the corresponding WWW document can be immediately displayed on the WWW access terminal.
Given this background, if a telecom karaoke system is linked to WWW to make it possible to display a WWW document in synchronism with the performance of a piece of music on the telecom karaoke system, there will be no need to prepare or store the pictorial images to be displayed in advance at the host base station or to deliver to or store at the telecom karaoke terminal such images. WWW documents to be displayed at telecom karaoke terminals contain the text, still and moving pictures, and sounds, which are updated or augmented everyday by people everywhere in the world, and therefore the number of WWW documents available for display is virtually infinite.
Thus, while linking the performance of music on a telecom karaoke system and the displaying of a WWW document can provide a great advantage, there was no means to realize it.
Moreover, the conventional techniques described above have the disadvantage that the user cannot refer to data including the history of musical numbers he or she has so far selected by diverse means other than a telecom karaoke terminal. Thus, as stated in Reference 6, the historical data on the choice of music are accumulated at the host station only to be utilized for internal purposes, such as using data for advertising or, as described in Reference 7, the data were only subsequently put together to reveal popularity ranking. These problems derive from the circumstance that the host base station where musical data are accumulated and the managing server building up data on the choice of music among other things are managed in the same closed network.
The present invention, therefore, has been attempted in view of the above-enumerated problems, and its object is to provide a telecom karaoke system capable of sequentially displaying the contents of a WWW document in synchronism with the performance of music.
Another object of the invention is to provide a telecom karaoke system wherein, along with the performance of a piece of music, information related to the piece is updated on a WWW server by choosing the piece on a menu displayed on a WWW document.
In order to achieve the above-cited objects, a telecom karaoke system according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises:
a host base station for storing musical data consisting of data necessary for the performance of a musical number and storage address information of pictorial images to be displayed in synchronism with the performance of the musical number superposed on the necessary data for the performance;
a musical data receiving terminal for receiving said musical data from said host base station;
a signal separator for separating said musical data received by said musical data receiving terminal into said data necessary for the performance of the musical number and said storage address information, and supplying them separately;
a music playback device for performing the musical number in accordance with said data necessary for its performance supplied by said signal separator;
a server computer for providing pictorial images; and
a pictorial image access terminal for receiving from said server computer pictorial images indicated by said storage address information supplied by said signal separator, and displaying them in synchronism with the performance of the musical number by said music playback device.
A telecom karaoke system according to a second aspect of the invention comprises:
a host base station for storing necessary data for the performance of music;
a server computer for storing a frame in which information for the selection of musical numbers is described;
a pictorial image access terminal for receiving from said server computer and displaying said frame, and entering an instruction to select a musical number in accordance with the information described in said frame; and
a music playback device for receiving from said host base station necessary data for performing the musical number for which a selecting instruction has been entered from said pictorial image access terminal, and performing the musical number in accordance with those data,
wherein, when an instruction to select a musical number is entered by a user from said pictorial image access terminal, said server computer stores the circumstances of the selection of the selected musical number, and further stores the circumstances of the selection of the musical number by the user.
Further, a telecom karaoke system according to a third aspect of the invention combines the features of the above-described telecom karaoke systems according to the first and second aspects of the invention.